A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Eilat

The following letter from a traveller to Eilat reflects the matter of fact nature of life in the shadow of the threat from Gaza.

This is all so surreal.


I'm in flight now between Tel Aviv and Eilat. (I'll send this email when we land). In the distance off to the right we just saw two rockets launched from Gaza toward Beer Sheva and we saw Iron Dome missles launch and intercept them.

This is quite unreal. They were pretty far away so we heard nothing - just these distant streaks of light racing up Many years ago in combat I saw both incoming and outgoing missles. While it was kind of cool the reality of that situation was very stressful. The disconnect was the same as even then it seemed that I was in some sort of a sci fi movie although the pain and death were too real.

Before taking off I checked with staff and although could not reach everyone as the telephone system is cracking under the over use which is beyond capacity. Everyone was ok as of 30 minutes ago.

Pilot has just announced air raid sirens going off in Beer Sheva - I can see flashes of what looks like red lights - pilot back - 8 rockets launched from Gaza and 8 direct hits by Iron Dome missiles.

One of the problems is the vast amount of weapons, especially missiles, that were raided from Libyan army bases after the fall of Ghadafi. The new Egyptian government, headed by Muslim Brotherhood, has opened the border from Egypt to Gaza to allow these weapons in.

This war will be controlled in a weird way by Hamas. Israel prefers that it would end now by as Hamas escalates Israel shall escalate. I fear Israel will be suckered into another ground war. The crazy reality of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, AQ in Iraq and Libya, Hizballah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza is that the more they are attacked the more volunteers they get. As they have a death-cult culture, where they glorify death as actually being the better life and goal of life, they are in a sort of no loss position. So while the natural instinct is to keep hitting Hamas harder and harder until they stop shooting, the strategy is also counter-productive. Isn't this like a Greek myth?

Something about Hercules fighting this 7 headed dragon where every time he cut off a head two would grow in its place. I can't remember how he prevailed but maybe it was lifting the dragon off the ground ?

Can't remember.

Well we are approaching Eilat now so have to sign off.